To the surprise of many, the Houston Astros head to the nation’s capital down 2-0 in the World Series with both of their aces defeated, and now must look to their big acquisition at the trade deadline to get back on track against the Washington Nationals.

The good news for the Astros is Zack Greinke has been a better road pitcher than home pitcher. Between his time with Houston and in the National League with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he was 10-4 on the road with a 2.64 ERA

Washington’s Anibal Sanchez has been masterful this postseason, giving up one run in 12²/₃ innings with opponents hitting just .116. But during the season, he was better on the road (3.48 ERA) than he was at home (4.24 ERA).

The issue with Sanchez is he typically doesn’t provide as much length as the other Nationals starters, which means they will have to rely upon a bullpen that recently has been solid, but for the year was dead last in the National League in ERA.

The Astros have six players in their starting lineup who hit at least .280 with 21 or more home runs this season. Yordan Alvarez has three hits in the World Series after getting just one in the ALCS. The Astros had the best record in MLB during the regular season for a reason and traded for Greinke for a situation like this.

The play: Pick the Astros Friday night at -135.